Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages

by Nancy Mandeville Caciola

Trance states, prophesying, convulsions, fasting, and other physical manifestations were often regarded as signs that a person was seized by spirits. In a book that sets out the prehistory of the early modern European witch craze, Nancy Caciola shows how medieval people decided whom to venerate as a saint infused with the spirit of God and whom to avoid as a demoniac possessed of an unclean spirit. This process of discrimination, known as the discernment of spirits, was central to the religious culture of Western Europe between 1200 and 1500. Since the outward manifestations of benign and malign possession were indistinguishable, a highly ambiguous set of bodily features and behaviors were carefully scrutinized by observers. Attempts to make decisions about individuals who exhibited supernatural powers were complicated by the fact that the most intense exemplars of lay spirituality were women, and the "fragile sex" was deemed especially vulnerable to the snares of the devil. Assessments of women's spirit possessions often oscillated between divine and demonic interpretations. Ultimately, although a few late medieval women visionaries achieved the prestige of canonization, many more were accused of possession by demons. Caciola analyzes a broad array of sources from saints' lives to medical treatises, exorcists' manuals to miracle accounts, to find that observers came to rely on the discernment of bodies rather than seeking to distinguish between divine and demonic possession in purely spiritual terms.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Religion, College

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading a number of books about demons for my own book on the subject. There is no lack of choice in this realm, but I found Caciola’s book fascinating at every turn. It’s difficult to summarize a book that covers so much territory, but my reading of it suggests that the main idea is when men in the Middle Ages acted possessed, it was often attributed to God. When women in the same period acted the same way, it was attributed to demons. The past, it’s often said, is a foreign country. Male superiority was assumed, largely based on biblical interpretation. Caciola begins by pointing out just how few women were canonized as saints during the medieval period.

As I mention in my blog post on the book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World), it is a matter of perspective. While some women like Hildegard of Bingen wrote, education was primarily a male enterprise. Since men wrote the accounts, women often come off looking silly or uninformed. This was reflected, Caciola shows, even in the language used to describe men and women. Deeply embedded in the church’s view of human sexuality was a male bias. While demons couldn’t invade a human heart, they could settle in the “lower half” of the body, making gender the focus. Indeed, most of those thought possessed by demons in this time period were female. This fascinating book demonstrates how that led to witch hunts.

This study covers not only gender difference and how the church thought of it, but also exorcism and how it shifted from an informal practice to a scripted rite. In an era that feared divisiveness more than just about anything, the Western Schism (where the papacy split into two) was blamed on women by some writers. As women became more and more instruments of diabolical planning, the inevitability of witch hunts loomed. Although an academic book, this is an eye-opening study for anyone interested in gender disparity and how women came to be associated with demonic possession. It is necessarily an uncomfortable book, but all the more important for precisely that.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at how the Christian ecstatic states were viewed differently, depending on whether the person affected was female or male. Nancy Mandeville Caciola traces much of this back to the medieval theory of sex differences, elaborated from the ancient theory of four humors, which in essence found that women were sensitive and "open" and men rational and less influenced. It is startling what passed for evidence prior to the development of science per se, but not at all surprising that truths were taken to be self-evident that men (the sex of those who, overwhelmingly, were constantly at each others' throats) were more rational.
A little discussion of medieval medical theory, no matter how apropos, goes a long way for me. What is really fascinating about Caciola's work is her discussion of why there were so many more male saints in certain eras, and her examination of how these factors played out in the careers--there really is no other word for it--of particular holy women. Of especial interest are Margaret of Crotona, a sinner-turned-saint, Elizabeth of Spalbeek, whose stigmata were subjected to Church scrutiny (could a female suffer stigmata? could a non-Franciscan?) and Sibylla, who preached and claimed to live without having to eat. The unanswered question--because it is unanswerable--is why these women chose to make claims which they knew would subject them to the one transnational European authority of the time. The question to which I suspect we can intuit an answer is why that authority was so invested, while promoting saints, in challenging these particular aspirants.

[Stacey Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating feminist examination of the middle ages and demonic possession. Well balanced primary sources and fairly handled social critique that, at times, reads like a tabloid. Fascinating and informative!

[Ted Morgan]

Actually, this is timely reading. excellent work.

[Kaesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty academic so I might not rec it to everyone, but if you see the title and you're like "oh tell me more!" or even if you're just interested in how medieval people conceptualized the anatomy of the self, their ideas about sex and gender and biology, etc. it's a fascinating and weird read. I think it's kind of interesting that popular culture doesn't really do much with divine possession at all; I guess it's not as scary to people who are likely to be believers? (It'd scare the shit out of me ngl.) I also appreciated that the author generally did not make the whole book a discussion of "okay but what mental illness did these people have, how would we diagnose that?" and examines the particular histories of the allegedly possessed people through a medieval lens to try to understand their worldview.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this for a history class, but it was actually a fascinating book. It’s very well written and easy to understand, which is important to me when reading academic texts. I would definitely recommend it to other students and anyone interested in the Middle Ages.

[Ella]

Read for Michaelmas Term Primary Tutorial: Medieval Female Mystics.

[Kevin Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book focuses on the role of exorcism in the medieval age with regards to women. It's a very in depth study of the role of women, religion, and spiritual possession of that era. A very unique book any one interested in the subject should check out.